


L'appel du Vide

by bohemiantea



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Archdemons (Dragon Age), Canonical Character Death, F/M, Grey Wardens, Implied/Referenced Suicide, The Blight (Dragon Age), Ultimate Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 17:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20456741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bohemiantea/pseuds/bohemiantea
Summary: Prompt: "Riordan's just about to drop the mother of all surprises on Alistair and the Warden at Redcliffe. How does he feel beforehand? After? How quickly is his mind made up re: making the ultimate sacrifice?"





	L'appel du Vide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brimfulofasher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brimfulofasher/gifts).

> I was told I could make the Warden as generic as I liked or to give Yana Surana a go. I split the difference and did a little of both, and did enough research to know one of the outcomes magpiesandmabari chose for Yana and Alistair. :)
> 
> "L'appel du vide" is French for "call of the void." It's the intrusive thought to leap when you're on a tall building, or the urge to swerve into oncoming traffic. Most people never act. I felt the phrase was incredibly apt on a number of levels for this piece. 
> 
> Music inspiration: Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoR0mGq_z2I
> 
> (Final note: Please mind the tags. If you find yourself triggered, I urge you to call a hotline. https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ You are loved and you are precious.)

Riordan has had a year to contemplate his decision, less than a week to understand that Surana and Alistair were not aware a decision existed, two days to make it, and an eyeblink to act upon it. The Archdemon was a boulder rolling down a mountain, so large as to be inevitable for its path to cross his, and with too much time to consider how he must meet it.

He’d heard the call before he slipped the Ferelden border, the shy, sweet notes like an insect bite or a cut inside one’s cheek. It is deceptively easy to ignore but insidious. Sooner or later, everyone scratches. That is when the madness begins.

The last he’d seen Duncan, Riordan stood witness at Alistair’s Joining. He had only to spend a short time in Duncan’s presence to know he heard the call too. Perhaps it was for that reason Duncan had never told the young man what was required to kill the Archdemon. The discordant harmonies swelled and crowded out reason and hope, and perhaps Duncan had also made the same decision, never expecting simple treachery to take it from him.

Surana, however… Riordan knew in all the ways the young mage clung to and supported Alistair, his new crown as uncertain as his smile, that she too did not know the fate that awaited. Even the Landsmeet did not strip away the intensity of the couple's mutual regard. On the eve of battle, the song was now a chorus of corruption that only needed one voice silenced forever to end. It would be him. It had to be him. The young couple’s hands clasping as he spoke was not the only reason why – he had the experience, he was older, it was _always the eldest_ – but despite the discipline this war demanded, it became the most compelling.

If the Blight was a darkness and the slow extinguisher of souls, then it was Riordan’s duty to end it and nurture the light with his own dim spark.

The Archdemon roared its call, and Riordan answered it from the palace turret, leaping into the void with the memory of those clasped hands giving him flight.

**Author's Note:**

> I could have sworn there was over 500 words. Word lied to me. *shakes fist*


End file.
